A Tale of Two Planets
by Oswulf
Summary: A series of brief moments. Jenny on one world. Captain Jack on another. Both dealing with issues of violence and intolerance.


1: Daughter of the Sky

One day a star came out, as bright as the suns, as bright as stars usually are against the night sky. Most residents of Braybron watched with curiosity or fascination. Lieutenant Radix found it disturbingly reminiscent of things he had seen in the wars and was more trepidatious. And in the courtyard Xilia and Yvette sat stunned, their Xenobiology textbooks forgotten as the great sphere of flames grew into a small spacecraft and crashed perilously close.

Xillia's terrified scream died in her throat as she spotted the lone figure leaping from the cockpit and rolling—barely—to safety as the ship combusted like a supernova behind her. She emerged from the roll and regained her feet mere meters away from the girls in one smooth acrobatic motion. The flames left her outfit slightly charred but showed no signs of having inflicted physical harm, and her mood was clearly quite upbeat. Her smile was almost wider than her face as she extended a hand and announced, "Hello, I'm Jenny."

2: The Embassy Embroilment

Captain Jack readied his weapon as he glanced at the three brave Obash who had agreed to accompany him into battle. The Obashi Oritarian Order had long been pursued by Obashi authorities and roundly condemned by the Oritarian church, but what it lacked in sanction it more than made up for at the moment in hostages.

The Caplea embassy on Kredip was mercifully close the blueprints upon which Jack had based the assault and the short-range teleport took them precisely to the room where the hostages were being held. Uri and Andrew split off to the left, Eric to the right and all three took very quick but very careful shots. Two of the Orderians were disarmed immediately. Jack for his part screamed and fired wildly, drawing the attention of the rest.

It was a very dangerous gamble. Eric, two of the hostages, and four of the Ordarians were hurt. But only Jack died. Uri shook his head as Jack gasped in air and revived. "I'll never get used to that."

3: Meet the Parent

Yvette's mother, Elian, shook his head. "I just don't see how anyone could leap from an exploding ship." The four of them were having lunch in the cafeteria of the photon plant where he worked.

"It's genetic," said Jenny. "I mean, you can tell the differences between-" she gestured uncertainly.

Yvette laughed. "Xillia's Caplean, as I'm sure you've noticed is just about everyone here. My father and I are Obashi. But we've met humans before and I've never seen…"

"Well, I'm really not human, and even if I was I…"

They were interrupted by the first shots. Several Obash with large weapons burst into the room. They fired without hesitation easily, their blasts charring the table Jenny had instinctively upended.

Jenny had processed the strategic elements of the room subconsciously the second she had entered. She hurled her coffee mug at the pot which shattered, covering one of the attackers with hot coffee and broken glass. "Go out the left door. Turn right. Go!"

"But what…" began Xillia, but Jenny had already leaped directly at the attackers, rolling, dodging and drawing their fire. Most of it anyway. She caught Elian's reflection in the mirror over the sink, saw the blast strike her just as she was disappearing through the door.

Jenny barked out a Gallifreyan curse-where she had learned it was anybody's guess-as she leaped. She struck two of the attackers' heads together as she kicked a third, then disabused him of his weapon and used him as a shield until she got to the door, kicking him prone as she ducked out.

She dashed around and met the others, immediately diagnosing Elian's useless leg. "We have to run now," she said.

"Go," he answered over her daughter's objections. "Please."

"What do they hope to," Jenny began thinking aloud. "Unstable hydro-packs, photon plant, clear-cutting tactics…" Her eyes widened. "Unchain the photon flow?"

"That would blow a crater in the planet a mile wide!" gasped Xillia.

"The anti-neutron chamber!" exclaimed Jenny. "Low priority for them, but I can set up a flow that will at least shield us from the blast. Run!"

The wake: They got to the anti-neutron chamber. And Jenny set up the anti-neutron flow and the particles that flooded that room shielded them, so that they were the only three in a mile radius who survived the explosion. Then she walked to the corner where Yvette sat wracked with sobs and Xillia tried helplessly to comfort her.

4: Pillow Talk

Jack reclined on the pillow and ran his fingers lightly through Eric's hair. "Doesn't the Oritarian Church frown on sleeping with men?"

Eric smiled. "Well, you aren't a man—you're an alien. Anyway, I've read the Ch'kar cover to cover and reading that prohibition into it is really a bit of a stretch. Granted it's a stretch that the average adherent buys into…"

"Even on a planet like Mikov which the Tripple-O has condemned as a heathen world."

"Tripple-o," spat Eric. "As if someone who commits mass murder in the name of Elowey has moral standing to judge anyone. You heard what they did on Braybron?"

"And here I thought you didn't like the Caplea."

"I didn't like it when they attacked and killed my father back in the war. I don't like the way they've stolen our Ambrosium. I suppose seeing them makes me uneasy. But that certainly doesn't excuse wiping out an entire community…"

"Wealthy community too. In the heart of the Republic where they felt safest. Psychologically devastating."

Eric nodded, then moved closer. "Let's talk about something more pleasant, shall we?"

Things grew more pleasant, but in truth very little of it involved talking.

5: Church School

"May Dios add wisdom and understanding to our reading of his word," Zanto finished and released his neighbors' hands. "So, we all know the first bombs dropped this morning. Trying to talk about anything else would be ignoring the elephant in the room."

"My brother's unit was sent to Mikov," said Kylar quietly.

Voylin placed a hand on her arm supportively. "I hope they take out those Obash quickly and come home soon."

Xillia looked jarred. "You mean the bad ones."

Voylin considered. "Yes I… Yes. Of course if there are any nice ones like your friend…"

Jenny shook her head. "Mikov is clearly a strategic target anyway. I don't think good or bad is a factor."

Kylar gritted her teeth. "You know what they're like. You know what they've done. Poor Xillia lost both of her parents in the blast radius. People who do that aren't good. How can you—how can even a non-believer…"

"But that was the Tripple-O," said Jenny. The Tripple O doesn't operate on Mikov. They don't receive support from Mikov. They condemn Mikov. An attack on Mikov isn't an attack on the Tripple-O, it's just an attack on innocent civilians."

Kylar snorted, "They didn't seem to care about our innocent civilians."

6: Unhappy Reunion

Eric bit his lip. "We do have to do something."

"Not this," answered Jack.

"We've spent our entire lives fighting the Tripple O," added Andrew. "I'm not going to start acting like them."

"Acting like… Scapa has been leveled by Caplean bombs. Their soldiers are in the street pointing guns in our faces. They murdered Uri in cold blood."

"It's not their fault," said Jack. "Orders…"

"Just obeying orders? Please. It's every decent man's duty to refuse morally reprehensible orders. Not to mention—Caplean leaders are elected by the Caplean people. Besides you can see the cruelty in their faces…"

"I'm not defending them," said Andrew. "Some of them may be acting out of cruelty. But I refuse to sink to their level. I will not now, not ever adopt Tripple-O tactics against anyone."

"The Tripple-O attack the innocent," said Eric. "Caplean soldiers are not innocent. Jack, if you love me…"

Andrew looked decidedly unfomfortable.

"Don't do that," said Jack. "Don't try to manipulate me into doing something we both know is wrong."

Eric said nothing, he simply stood and left.

7: Fuel Station

Jenny needed the rotary emulizor to fix her ship. Yvette and Xillia needed the road trip. So they had picked the embulizor up from the distributor and had spent the day at the park. Now on their way back, Xillia had stopped at the fuel station. While she refilled the tank, Jenny and Yvette went inside. Jenny began picking out snacks as Yvette visited the restroom.

Three teenage boys entered and picked out some snacks of their own, laughing about some sports event they had just attended. They were at the counter paying when Yvette returned. One of them stared as his smile vanished. "Go home, terrorist," he spat. One of his friends laughed, but there was no humor in his eyes.

Jennifer's first thought was kinetic and tactical—it would be so easy to immobilize, take him down—his friends too if necessary. That wouldn't help anything though. It took a moment to shepherd through a less mercurial response. Yvette WAS home, had lived here her entire life. Yvette was kind and gentle almost to a fault. Her mother had been killed by terrorists. But any riposte was moot, the boys were all ready leaving.

Yvette said nothing, just closed her eyes and swallowed.

8: Visiting Lectureship

Mr. Toussleg was nearly the antithesis of everything the Tripple O stood for. Where they advocated violence, he counseled peace. Where they demonized the Caplea, he worked co-operatively with them in hopes of helping everyone. Where they claimed to serve the will of Elowey, he could quote chapter and verse where the Ch'Kar taught co-operation, diversity and acceptance. And although the Tripple O had never seen such support on Mikov, nor his calls for reconciliation as little, as it did following the bombings and occupation he still saw far more support than they ever would.

His lecture had been eloquent, but Jack was unsure how much good it would do. Those that needed to hear his message most would never have shown up to listen. Still, he made his way forward to shake the man's hand.

"Human, right?" asked Toussleg. "I've seen a human around Braybron lately. Young lady with yellow hair—is that normal?"

"For humans yellow hair isn't particularly abnormal," Jack replied. "So how are things on Braybron since the Tripple-O…"

"There are raw nerves," allowed Toussleg. "The emotional walls are thinner and some of the ugliness that we—all people—are usually better at hiding has surfaced. But it all comes down to division, I think. I've worked closely with Capleans, with Obash. There's no intrinsic animosity. It's just easy for most Capleans who've never spent time with Obash, who know of us only as enemies in war and from the actions of the Tripple-O to associate us with the worst aberrations among us. It's too easy for most Obash whose only experience of Capleans is as an enemy or an oppressor to judge the entire species by the worst and most violent of its impulses."

"We tend to surround ourselves with the comfortable and familiar," Jack observed.

"A human on Milak?"

"All right, so I'm atypical. But the point is—there's a very real tendency to clump into cliques. How do we overcome that?"

"Locally, I suppose. If we could forge opportunities—places where Capleans and Obash can meet one another, get to know each other as friends."

9: Behind a Podium

Jenny sat cross-legged on the couch flipping through the holographic images projected by local stations. Quel le change, quel le meme chose. She stopped short as the likeness of a clearly aggravated woman seemed to speak directly to her. Obviously it was a quality of the equipment but it still sent a chill down her spine. Out of curiosity, she watched the woman atop the podium.

"…by this man Toussleg, an Oritarian extremist. He just got back from Milak where Oritarian terrorists keep attacking our brave soldiers and while he was talking to his Oritarian groups over there he came up with this Oritarian church he wants to build right in the crater his friends made not too long ago."

Jennifer turned the sound off and gave Xillia a confused look. "You can't build in the crater. They're still cleaning…"

"Artistic licence," clarified Xillia. "In, near, precision has never been Xahli's strong suit. It's also not a church. The plan is for a center where the community can come together. The idea is to help Caplea and Obash learn to get along."

"As if you two needed any help. Seems an odd message to be coming from an extremist though."

"I've actually heard him speak," Yvette supplied. "He's about as close to the Triple O as I am."

10: Stargazing

Jenny looked up into the night sky, watched the constellation of Leprucia as it seemed to wink at her. On the one hand she was amused, on the other she worried whether it was her imagination, or if there was actually something wrong with the star that formed Leprucia's eye.

Jack looked up into the night sky, watched the constellation of Rindell as the star at the tip of its tail seemed to blink. Had that been his imagination? Was something wrong? He supposed it didn't matter. It was all ready enough to worry about all the real problems he was dealing with. The occupation had gotten worse. Obash were taking it as evidence of Caplean hostility and a very few like Eric had begun to strike back. Caplea were taking these strikes as evidence of Obash hostility and some few soldiers were seriously crossing lines. To say nothing of all the media attention some wrongheaded Caplean Ch'Kar-burners were getting and the exacerbations that brought. Sometimes he wondered—was this why the doctor always seemed to disappear so quickly after fixing whatever problem faced him? Was it just too depressing trying to shepherd things through in the long-term?

Jenny shook her head. It was all so much to take in—the cruelty and the compassion. She wondered whether life would get more comprehensible once her age had crept into the double digits. She looked back up at the sky and tried to breath in a sense of calm. In the back of her head a voice echoed. A memory barely heard, barely remembered, buried in the depths of unconsciousness: "Let that be the foundation of your society. The man who never would."


End file.
